DISORDERS

The spine – the backbone of your health

The spine is
the central axis of the body and fulfills enormously versatile tasks relevant
to your health: In a healthy condition, it facilitates both an upright posture
and – due to its complex precision and elastic construction – a high degree of
mobility. This makes it possible to turn the body in all directions, to bend
and to lift up heavy objects. The spinal disks between the vertebrae cushion
static and dynamic forces affecting the spine and disperse such forces along
the vertebral cross section.

However, lack
of exercise or overstraining tend to destabilize the finely balanced interplay
between bones, ligaments, tendons, nerves and muscles. In the industrialized
world, spine disorders today are the most frequent cause of pain. As shown by investigations
carried out by Statistik Austria, such disorders have meanwhile become chiefly
responsible for sickness absence and premature withdrawal from work.

Diseases of and
damage to the spine can cause various disorders, such as head, neck, back, arm, leg and nervous pain, in addition to
neurological failure including sensation
disorders (fingers gone numb), amyasthenia
and palsy.

Cervical
spine: Headache, dizziness, neck and shoulder pain, sharp pain in
the arms and fingers, paresthesia of the skin (“pins and needles”, numbness,
prickle) in the arms and hands, amyasthenia, palsy, i.a.

Thoracic
spine: Disorders in the region of the heart, chest and lungs, i.a.